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Looking at Bowman's Awful Track Record As GM |
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I know some people don't like reading Stan Bowman, who was complicit in the Kyle Beach sexual assault and assaults of a high school and university student, over and over in my blogs. To make the blog less wordy, I'll only include it the one time.
Stan Bowman, regardless about how myself, or fans of the Edmonton Oilers may feel is now the General Manager of the Edmonton Oilers. Now the question is what will he do to improve this Edmonton Oilers team that made it to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals last season. Bowman won 3 Stanley Cups with the Blackhawks in the era of a salary cap, something that Ken Holland never did. The Hawks teams of the early 2010's were a dominant team with an incredible group of players like Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Corey Crawford, Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa, Patrick Sharp, and Niklas Hjalmarsson.
Stan Bowman did not bring a single one of these players in. The main group that people think of when thinking of these Hawks teams were brought in by former GM's Mike Smith and Dale Tallon. Here are some of the notable moves of Bowman's career.
BRANDON SAAD (ALL THREE TIMES)
If there is one trade we can guarantee is going to happen it's that Stan Bowman is going to trade for Brandon Saad and probably lose that trade.
Saad was taken 43rd overall by the Hawks in 2011, from a Bowman trade that sent the 32 overall pick in exchange for 43 and 69. Saad was a rugged goal scorer who was a great asset to that team until he was traded in 2015 for a package where the key pieces were Anisimov going to the Hawks and Saad going to the Blue Jackets. Saad continued to be a top six scorer while Anisimov slowly declines from a top six centre to a bottom six forward.
The next time the Hawks acquired Saad was in the brutal Panarin trade where the Hawks received Saad and Forsberg in exchange for Panarin. Bowman thought that bringing back the fan favorite Saad would add a mix of grit he felt the Hawks lacked and gave up one of the top wingers in the game to do so. Saad remains a solid player while Panarin remains elite.
The third time that Bowman traded Saad was to the Avalanche in exchange for Nikita Zadorov. Zadorov wasn't the souoght after (over-rated) player that he is today and less than a year later, Bowman traded the defenseman to the Flames in exchange for a third round pick. Somehow, Stan Bowman lost three trades involving Brandan Saad, either trading him away for lesser value, or overrating what the player brought.
SETH JONES CONTRACT
Bowman traded a 1st round pick in 2021 which became Cole Sillinger, a first round pick in 2022, which became David Jiricek, a 2nd in 2021 and Adam Boqvist to acquire Seth Jones and a 2021 1st round pick. Bowman also immediately signed Seth Jones to an 8 year deal with an AAV of 9.5 million dollars. This is also the contract that inflated the market that allowed Nurse and his camp to push for their 9.25 million dollar deal.
This contract immediately became an anchor as Jones plummeted defensively for the Hawks while also failing to put up any offensive numbers of note. This remains one of the worst contracts in the NHL.
TRADING PHILLIP DANAULT
Bowman traded a 2018 2nd round pick and Phillip Danault to the Canadiens in exchange for Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann. After putting up 14 goals and 26 points in 56 games with the Canadiens, Weise would put up 0 goals and 1 assist in 15 games with the Hawks for the remainder of that season. Fleischmann would put up 4 goals and 1 assist in 19 games for the Hawks. Chicago was swept in 4 games in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Danault meanwhile would go on to become one of the stronger two way shutdown centres in the NHL.
TRADING TEUVO TERAVAINEN
Chicago traded a young up and coming Teravainen and a cap dump in Bickell for a 2016 2nd and 2017 3rd round pick. Teravainen has been a staple of the Hurricanes for the past eight seasons and regular 50+ point producer, hitting 60+ a couple times and 70+ once.
TRADING NICK LEDDY
Bowman traded Nick Leddy in exchange for T.J. Brennan, Ville Pokka, Kent Simpson, and Anders Nilsson. Most of these players names are unrecognizable to the average fan and unsurprisingly none had any future as a Blackhawk. Nick Leddy meanwhile would be a top end defensive defender for the Islanders for years, finishing his career with the Blues.
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Stan Bowman won three Cups as GM with the Hawks but it was taking the reigns on a nearly complete team with all the hard work done by previous GM's. I suppose in that facet, that is what Jeff Jackson is counting on Bowman to do with the Edmonton Oilers. The main pieces are all in place and all of the actual signings and moves of this off-season were done before Bowman was in place.
One common thing that many of these trades have in common is that the Hawks were dealing with cap constraints and had to make some tough calls on some players which resulted in some pretty lacklustre returns. That is exactly the position that the Edmonton Oilers may be finding themselves in in the next few years. Bowman has an embarrassingly poor track record of getting any return of value from these assets or stocking the cupboards in an impactful way for the future.
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Even if we were to ignore why Bowman was suspended from the NHL in the first place (which we absolutely should not do), I would still be highly critical of this hiring. Bowman has a mediocre trade record, has been awful at recognizing young talent; trading away the likes of Forsling, Teravainen, Danault, and others who flourished with other teams, and signed long term contracts that greatly hurt the longevity of his team's compete window.
Once again phrases like "3 Stanley Cups," and "history of winning" are being thrown around instead of bringing in a fresh forward thinking individual with new ideas.
All of this just reinforces that in addition to the disgraceful means of how Bowman was brought back, he remains a piss-poor GM.
Thanks for reading.
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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